perpetual presence of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church, the extension of his passion in the sufferings of its persecuted members, and the identification of their cause with his cause, the demi-pagan disciple of this school seems incapable of comprehending them. He explains them by speaking of the extravagance of persons belonging to all sects when fancying that they endure religious grievances; and he feels free to confess that expressions of this kind somehow always affect him with a sense of the ridiculous. In vain you may remind him of facts and texts. He resembles the squire described by Cervantes, who pretends that he delivered the letter to Dulcinea; were he to confess the truth, lest he should be questioned, he forgot it on purpose." His opinions are no less in opposition with all the other mystical doctrines contained in the Holy Scriptures. We saw on another road, what he thinks of the diabolic influence. He is ever ready to say with the Harpax of Massinger, "I'll tell you what now of the devil. He's no such horrid creature; cloven-footed, He's more loving to man than man to man is." Naturalism, proceeding thus farther still, finds its most congenial ally at last to be that infidelity, which, if not with open avowals, exercises its hatred of God, as St. Augustin says, " verbis animæ et clamore cogitationis *." The secret thought has long been that of the Spungius of Massinger," I see no remedy, companion, but that thou and I must be half Pagans and half Christians; I am resolved to have an infidel's heart, though in show I carry a Christian's face." In fact, the opposition to the supernatural morality of the Catholic Church, proceeding through various stages, and assuming a diversity of forms, ends in a general disbelief of all that is godly or intelligible as such. And then its confessions, like those of Cardenes, disclose the consequences as affecting its views of the human nature; for it goes on to say, "Certain we have no reason, nor that soul Created of that pureness books persuade us : Christians like these the Ethiop shall condemn. Or, as the old dramatist says, "Nature did make the Heathen far more Chris * Confess. x. 3. tian than knowledge these less heathenish Christian*." That they should malign the supernatural element ought to be only a motive for others, however imperfect, to love and to respect it more. "And if our watchfulness Ought to be wise and serious 'gainst a thief That comes to steal our goods, things all without us To do this, maligning what is supernatural, seems to be their ruling passion,-pursuing it in every form, descending to the practices of the indivisible and democratic republic in its second year, or to the regulations of the Board of National Education in its maturity; when, in order to extirpate" fanaticism” under each system alike, official visitors are charged to order the removal of all Catholic symbols, crosses, holy pictures, et tous les autres signes de fanatisme, or, as elsewhere it is translated, "all other party badges." The results are seen in generations which, losing all faith in any distinctive Christianity, find amusement in sacrilegious platitudes, worthy of an atheist without taste, or of a laquais without religion. Our old dramatist holds up to ridicule their language, in the reply of the servant to the Venetian gentleman, who asks what is his religion : "Troth, to answer truly I would not be of one that should command me I would not be confined To my belief; when all your sects and sectaries I will profess myself;-in the mean time, Live I in England, Spain, France, Rome, Geneva, 66 It is the same laugh as that Cleanthes brought his father's corpse to the grave with: he laughed thus then. Ives de Chartres contrasts the fall of St. Peter with the incredulity of such opponents. Peter," he says, "did not deny that Christ was the Christ, but only that he himself was the disciple of Christ +." Whereas these men say we are his disciples, while leading us to infer practically that He is not God. They resemble, in regard * Par. 19. + Ep. 81. to their appreciation of the Church, the friend of Job, who, as St. Odo of Cluny observes," was proudly silent; for when it is said that Helin waited for Job to speak, it is clear that he kept silence through respect, not for him, but for his friends; for the arrogant placed within despise the holy Church which they defend, and generally show much more reverence for the genius of those thinking wrongly than for the simple life of the innocent *." "The inconsistency," says Leibnitz, " between men's lives and their professions, arises in part from this fact, that they are often only half convinced; and that, whatever they may say, an occult incredulity reigns with them at the bottom; for they have never understood the good reasons which verify the immortality of the soul, or they forget having understood them ↑.” With Adam the formulas of this opposition were, 66 "Perhaps thou shalt not die; perhaps the fact With the moderns, naturalism holds other language, and says,perhaps thou shalt die, and death prove the extreme limit." And now look back, and mark what a contrast is here to those who used to commit their desires to the imitation of the weak, their actions to the censures of the wise and holy, and their frailties to the pardon of their God; for Catholicism sees its children fall through human weakness, but never turn on the Providence which they offend. Their wit will never serve them to so fond a purpose. "Because opportunity and sin persuaded us," says Cleantha, in the Queen of Arragon," must we deform our minds ?" "'Cause you find yourself Nought but loose flesh, will you turn heretick 66 This language falls powerless on those whom naturalism sways. We are all tainted some way, but these worst. Yes," they answer in their hearts: "this is what we may do. Why should we not do it?" With such views, pietas ad omnia inutilis est : and only the spirit of Ganelon is useful. For Ganelon, who was a witness of Charlemagne's generous action, when he par doned the duke d'Aigremont, looked upon this pardon as an act of weakness, which brought dishonour on his own family; and similarly he would have viewed every other action be VOL. VI. *Mor. in Job, lib. xxiii. + Nouveaux Essais sur l'Entendement, &c. ii. C C longing to the supernatural order. But they who hold opinions of this kind must be prepared to see rise, high passions, anger, hate, mistrust, suspicion, discord. If they will impart such wisdom they will make man that wretched creature which he was. "You then again shall see him passionate, A lover of poor trifles, confident In man's deceiving strength, or false fortune ; The decline of supernatural morals is indicative of that drooping host which Dante speaks of in the lines, 66 Slow, and full of doubt And with thin ranks, after its banners mov'd “Protestantism,” says Frederick Schlegel, "has not been confined to those states where it became predominant, and received a public and legal establishment. Far greater was the danger, far more fatal were the consequences, when an open rupture, a formal separation from the Church, did not take place, but where the spirit of Protestantism, a like or a kindred set of opinions, was infused into the moral system when the state or individual was externally Catholic." So Europe has remarked a prime minister of England approving of the projects of atheists in Piedmont, of Josephists in Austria, of Voltaireans in Belgium, of Jansenists in Portugal, of Gallicans in France, and of Cisalpines in England, and declaring that he would desire to carry them out with a view to the interests of the Catholic laity, as recognized and understood by themselves. The inconsistency caused by the attempt of some generations, generally adopting natural views, to continue professing the theory of supernatural morals, as in certain cases the old established legislation compels them to do, gives rise to a sense of the ridiculous, which modern authors are not reluctant to express, as, in fact, it constitutes for their genius of satire an inexhaustible supply of food. Goethe, who saw the coronation of Joseph II. as king of the Romans, describes him with the 'ewelled crown of Charlemagne, dragging himself along as if in disguise, so that he himself, looking at his father from time to time, could not refrain from laughing. Such men and generations, however willing to keep within the bounds that their own interest, as they understand it, prescribes, are, in fact, * Par. 12. 66 ciously, disdainfully, and calumniously, as any open foe to Catholicism could have written. Another instance occurred still more recently: "I verily believe," said an aged and illustrious lady, conversing with the same witness, that what prevented my embracing the Catholic faith when I was very young, was my hearing on one occasion, a certain English priest"-naming him-" sneer generally at the saints, and ridicule me for admiring the custom of having their pictures in Catholic houses." The reply to her was similar to the former. She was told that this ecclesiastic, though a learned man, had been suspended by his bishop for writings contrary to faith. Both, in fact, had adopted natural views; both were of the compromising school; both members of the Cisalpine club; both supremely jealous of the Holy See, and, indeed, of every thing called holy, which, whatever might be its form, they considered a badge of " Ultramontanism." Catholicism is a climate warmed by charity, and when that heat fails, the effects present an analogy to a forest phenomenon: for it is not without example for trees whose native soil is that of cold savage mountains, and which may have even come originally from the icy zone, to succumb to the cold which sometimes is experienced in temperate or warm climates. The cold of indifference within the Church is more pernicious than the state of the moral atmosphere without the limit of its pale. In fact, than such Catholics, no men are more hardened. It is they who on each occasion when faith and honour are at stake, "utter their opinion with one of those grinning sneers with which the devil marks his best beloved." One who had spent some years with the Saracens, on his return to Florence, hearing preach brother Albert de Sartiano, wept, and replied to those who asked the cause, "I weep for the calamity of the Moors and the ingratitude of the Christians; for if this sermon were preached in Damascus, I believe more than eighty thousand souls would be converted*." It is persons of this class who occasion all that is really calamitous in Christian history, as in present times. Hear Savonarola :-" Posuisti nos in contradictionem vicinis nostris. Who are our neighbours but the tepid, who in externals seem to be Christians? Alas! the enemies would not scorn unless these had contradicted. The enemies would be converted to penitence unless the tepid hindered them. The enemies would become friends and defenders of the truth if the Church had not tepid contradictors. Inimici converterentur ad pœnitentiam nisi tepidi eos impedirent. Inimici denique fierent amici et veritatis defensores, nisi Ecclesia haberet tepidos contradictores t." Begerlinck, Apophtheg. Christian. In Ps. Qui reg. Is. |